A helpless stray (TOI)
Disagreement is inherent in Indian politics. But the recent Supreme Court order on the removal of stray dogs from Delhi-NCR has brought the RSS chief and the ideologically opposite Gandhis of Congress on the same page, amid growing anger across India over the same.Yes, from Sangh’s Mohan Bhagwat to siblings Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi, as well as their cousin Varun and his mother Maneka Gandhi of BJP, all have spoken out in unison against the “death sentence” meted out to the strays of Delhi-NCR.Bhagwat has advocated for a humane and scientific way to regulate the population of strays in the capital and its outskirts over mass confinement in pounds in far-off places — an approach that echoes the animal birth control (ABC) rules mandated under law.”All animals have the right to live. The problem can be solved only by regulating the population of street dogs, but it cannot be resolved by putting them in shelters,” Bhagwat, a veterinary science graduate, said at a religious congregation in Cuttack on Thursday.”Sheltering all street dogs is not a practical solution. The only effective way is to implement sterilisation and vaccination, as already prescribed in law,” he added. Echoing similar voice, leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi has termed SC’s order to remove all stray dogs from Delhi-NCR “as a step back from decades of humane, science-backed policy”.These voiceless souls are not “problems” to be erased, he wrote on X, a day after the SC order. “Shelters, sterilisation, vaccination & community care can keep streets safe — without cruelty. Blanket removals are cruel, shortsighted, and strip us of compassion.We can ensure public safety and animal welfare go hand in hand.”Similarly, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has described the dogs as “the most beautiful creatures who do not deserve this kind of cruelty”. “The moving of all the city’s stray dogs to shelters within a matter of weeks is going to result in horrendously inhumane treatment of them. Enough shelters do not even exist to take them on.”Their cousin and former BJP Lok Sabha MP Varun Gandhi has described the SC order as “institutionalisation of cruelty” and “a harbinger of a legal structure that seeks to punish those who cannot fend for themselves”. “Nations face deeper moral crises when they step away from empathy,” he wrote on X.Summing up the RSS chief and Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi’s unprecedented show of support for the voiceless, noted animal rights activist Maneka Sanjay Gandhi told TOI that the “issue is above politics”.”It is about the soul of India. The word animal comes from anima which means soul. Are we going to survive as a compassionate society or will we become soulless violent people,” Gandhi, a former Union minister said.
